Support for Research

Sarah Ward

Ben Taylor

Jennifer Keating

Daniel Patterson

Lucy Hennings

I was absolutely thrilled to be awarded the RHS Marshall Fellowship for 2015/16. This award gives me the freedom to concentrate on finishing my research whilst also engaging with the intellectual opportunities offered by the Royal Historical Society.” Lucy Hennings

The RHS is unique in its provision of small research grants for postgraduate students and early career historians. We are already an indispensable source of grant aid for these scholars but with your support we could achieve so much more.

What’s the problem?

The changing landscape of higher-education funding means that support for research in the humanities is contracting rapidly. Small grants for research in archives – the lifeblood of historical research – have been eliminated altogether by the research councils. The British Academy has also been forced to cut back its small-grants programme under pressure from government to eliminate this form of funding. Funding from UK and EU bodies is increasingly focused on the very largest grants for multinational, interdisciplinary and collaborative projects – the so-called ‘million plus’ grants.

Special needs of postgraduates

There is even less funding available for the research expenses of postgraduates (who probably need the funding most), which is why the RHS has diverted its meagre funds principally to this end. But institutional funding for postgraduate research is under even more severe pressure, as the research councils have decided to withdraw support almost entirely from Master’s funding and to cut the share of their budgets devoted to PhD support in order to prioritise the ‘million-plus’ type grants.

There is obviously a yawning gap in the funding structure which needs to be filled, and with your support the RHS can fill this gap.